Living in an area with a large contingent of Liverpool fans, writes Damian, who lives in Chester should you be wondering, I'm constantly being drawn into debates about who sang You'll Never Walk Alone first. I've failed to come up with evidence to support my belief that it was the Celtic faithful. I'd appreciate any information which serves to conclude this dispute once and for all.

While many Celtic fan-based websites provide the words to You'll Never Walk Alone, and it features on the CD Green & White Anthems, there is no historical evidence that Celtic fans sang it on their terraces first. Instead, a cursory glance back in time shows that Liverpool have the much stronger claims.

After all, the song, originally written by Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1945 for the Broadway musical Carousel, only became a terrace favourite after it was covered by Gerry and the Pacemakers in November 1963. Almost immediately - as footage from Panorama in 1964 shows - Liverpool supporters adopted it.

As Paul Fields points out: "Before the early 60s football fans made noise and occasionally chanted something brief (like Play Up Pompey!) but it was the Kop that started singing popular songs of the day (mainly Merseybeat songs such as Gerry and the Pacemakers' You'll Never Walk Alone) and later started to adapt the lyrics of songs to celebrate the team and its players.

"If any Celtic fans still claim that they sang it first, it would have to predate Gerry's version. Now can you really see thousands of working class Glaswegians in the 50s/early 60s spontaneously joining in a sing-along from a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical?" No, us neither.

ENGLAND PLAYERS ABROAD

Who the first English player to play professionally abroad? asked one reader whose name we can't find.

The man you're looking for, according to the brilliant statistical site rsssf.com is Herbert Kilpin, who played for FC Torinese in 1891, then for Mediolanum Milano from 1898 to 1900 and Milan from 1900-07.

But Kilpin's defining moment came in a Tuscan wine shop in 1899 when together with two friends he founded the Milan Cricket and Football Club - now known as the one and only AC Milan.

SHIRT SPONSORSHIP

Watching Auxerre v Liverpool recently, I saw that Liverpool's sponsor was missing from their kit due to it being illegal in France to advertise alcohol, says Craig Mark Scully. I wondered if there were any other cases of British teams having to play minus their shirt sponsor in European competition?

How long have you got, Craig?

"When Manchester United won the Cup Winners' Cup final in Rotterdam in 1991 they did it without any sponsors on their shirts," says Paul McGrory, kicking off a bumper crop of answers. "I think this was due to some clash with Uefa which would have meant Sharp paying extra money for this one match."

However most shirt sponsorship problems arise because certain countries - particularly France and in Scandinavia - ban alcohol advertising. Ergo: when Rangers played Auxerre in the group stages of the Champions League, they were sponsored by Center Parks rather than McEwans Lager. Meanwhile, Spurs were forced to remove the Holsten logo when they played Viking of Stavanger twice during the early 90s, according to Torgrim Svensen.

However Ravi Hiranand remembers how some clubs found a way round this. "Rather than bring in a different sponsor, Liverpool and Carlsberg instead decided to put the word 'Probably...' on the front of the shirt (referring of course to Carlsberg catchphrase 'Probably the best lager in the world')," he says. "A sneaky way of getting past the law while still getting a sponsor's word in."

But sometimes it's a case of political sensitivity, as Chelsea - sponsored by Arabian airline Emirates - decided when they visited Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Finally, sponsors' words don't always mean the same thing in your opposition's language, as Arsenal found out when they played in Italy a few years back. "The Gunners had to wear their change strip which had Sega as the sponsor," says Pat Stafford. "An Italian-speaking friend told me that 'Sega' is a slang term for self-gratification."

Spurs fans will have a field day with this.

IS THE SPL THE EASIEST LEAGUE TO WIN IN THE WORLD

Living in Scotland, one is forced into two very definite things - spending lots of time in the pub, and being subjected to inexplicable enthusiasm for a rubbish football league, says Cam Haskell. A frequent pub-bound assertion of mine is that the Scottish Premier League is one of the, if not the, worst leagues in the world, due to the total dominance of the Old Firm. If it's only going to be one of two teams winning everything each year, what's the point? I suspect that this dominance would also extend to the Scottish Cup and CIS Cup too. What I want to know is a percentage figure for Old Firm wins in these cups and the league and how it compares to other crummy leagues.

Only one light-hearted answer to this question so far.

"Taking it on a strictly percentage-based basis, two teams from 12 means only 16.66% of the teams in the league have a chance of winning it," says Billy Stewart.

"In the English Premiership, only three teams have ever won it (two of which still totally dominate the league). This means that only 15% of the teams have a chance of winning the league and I do not see that changing in the foreseeable future. Therefore there is at least one league which has a higher level of dominance than Scottish football."

Not bad, Billy. But can any number crunchers out there reach a more scientific conclusion?

CAN YOU HELP?

"What is the record for the most yellow cards in a single game in English football," ponders Matthew Bateman.

"Has it ever been statistically proven that a player is more likely to score against his old club than in an 'average game'," asks Victor Ardern, "or is it just that such events seem more noticeable.

"And on the same theme, which player has the best scoring record when playing against their former employers?"